Burial Grounds
The Office of the State Archaeologist (OSA) maintains a database of the state's identified archaeological sites in collaboration with the Minnesota State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO). For further information on this database and other resources, please contact us.
Note that many resources may only be found in the OSA office (some being unavailable to the public) for practicality or confidentiality reasons.
Examples of Burial Grounds
This map illustrates the state-wide distribution of recorded burial and earthwork (mound) sites in Minnesota which are unplatted and over 50 years old. Not all such sites have been recorded to date.
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Unplatted burial sites include abandoned, historic cemeteries which are frequently overgrown, as seen in the photo below. Such burial areas may have originally been associated with individual families, religious communities, or townships.
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Minnesota’s landscape is dotted with earthworks or mounds built by Native American peoples before the arrival of Euro-American settlers. Such earthworks are frequently located along bluffs and terraces which overlook rivers. The illustrated map above shows a large mound group in Goodhue County, first recorded by T.H. Lewis in 1885.
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